PushButton Labs
announces they have acquired The Incredible Machine; both the series
of puzzle games, as well as the intellectual property itself.
PushButton Labs was
co-founded by Jeff Tunnell and Rick Overman, veterans of Dynamix and
GarageGames, and this acquisition of The Incredible Machine represents a bit of
a homecoming for the series, as Jeff Tunnell was a co-designer on the original
game (Wikipedia
lists him as its producer). With the IP in hand, it seems likely new games in
the series will be forthcoming, but in the meantime, they have bundled up almost
every game in the series for release on
GOG.com in a DRM-free bundle called The Incredible Machine Mega Pack
for $9.99. Here's an outline of the contents of the compilation: "Pack includes
almost every game from series: The Even More Incredible Machine (includes The
Incredible Machine with new puzzles), The Incredible Machine 3 (Windows
compatibly The Incredible Machine 2 with new interface and enhanced graphics),
Return of the Incredible Machine Contraptions and The Incredible Machine - Even
More Contraptions."

What if they came into your house and removed the cds? That's what happened -- basically

Yes, but they also emailed all the customers who'd bought those games a good month in advance, told them what was going to happen, and urged them to make back-ups of the installers before the change. They definitely didn't come into your house and remove your backups (Valve, OTOH, can invalidate your Steam app backups if they so choose).

I'm disappointed about it as well -- it's a definite mark against GOG -- but they hadn't anticipated it, they couldn't do anything about it, and they've learned from the mistake. Yeah, I'd prefer to have a pressed DVD backup over a writable DVD, but the games were dirt cheap to start with... it's really not that bad.

I certainly wouldn't call a traditional publisher unreliable for not replacing discs that I lost.

What if they came into your house and removed the cds? That's what happened -- basically. They should have at least offered those who got their files removed some kind of reimbursement or discount for replacement purchases (other games on the site). It would have been the ethical thing to do.

I honestly don't see how the "art style" is any different from classic IM games or why you would need to turn the camera around at all to be quite honest, given what kind of a game it is, but to each his own.

The reason you need to move the camera around is precisely because of how absolutely terrible, jarring, and distracting the background textures are. Half of the pieces get hidden in these ugly patterns, and I found myself adjusting the camera all the time just so that I could more easily recognize what the hell I was looking at.

I thought CM2 was quite enjoyable TBH. The graphics engine did seem to run a little slow considering the relatively simple graphics, but then again that kind of game doesn't NEED to be super optimized either. The Physx levels were also a nice addition. Pretty decent for what it is, IMHO.

Crazy Machines II has one of the most terrible, distracting art styles I've ever seen, and the controls for camera rotation are obfuscated like hell. It's just absurd how many poor decisions they made with that game, and I have no interest in buying it after playing the demo.

I honestly don't see how the "art style" is any different from classic IM games or why you would need to turn the camera around at all to be quite honest, given what kind of a game it is, but to each his own.

GOG were forced to remove the Codemasters racing games because of licensing agreements beyond their control. In other cases where they were forced to stop selling games, they kept the game up for download for customers. Blaming GOG for that is silly. I would bet GOG will never release a game with expiring license agreements ever again because of the misunderstanding it caused.

Crazy Machines II has one of the most terrible, distracting art styles I've ever seen, and the controls for camera rotation are obfuscated like hell. It's just absurd how many poor decisions they made with that game, and I have no interest in buying it after playing the demo.

Instead of buying Incredible Machines or whatever, buy Crazy Machines 2 instead. It's available on Steam and it's pretty much the single best IM-style game out there, has an enormous amount of parts available, plus some fancy physics engine and decent visuals. Other than that it's pretty much the same thing, but as I said, better.